


What's Daniel done this time?

by Topazowlet



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 14:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12483852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Topazowlet/pseuds/Topazowlet
Summary: Has Daniel being playing with the Quantum Mirror?





	What's Daniel done this time?

**Author's Note:**

> With so many stories about Quantum Mirrors, I hope I have found something unique. If not, I apologise to whoever’s story I obviously haven’t read! According to Quantum Theory, for every possible universe there are infinite variations diverging at every choice we make like forks in the road. I have taken a bit of a liberty and suggested that, as these realities diverged as the story started, Entropic Cascade Failure may happen quicker than 48 hours.

**Betaed by:** Solstice Winter to whom I am very grateful for helping resolve some inconsistencies in the story. Any still there are all my own! 

**What’s Daniel done this time?**

With Daniel’s curiosity, Jack wasn’t surprised that he had tried to see the Quantum Mirror before it went back to Area 51 to be destroyed. Jack himself couldn’t wait for it to go. Married to Carter! No way and, although it had been good to see Kawalsky again, he wanted that mirror gone. So, when General Hammond told him there had been an incident and could he come back to Cheyenne Mountain asap, he just knew that Daniel and that dammed mirror were involved. 

***** 

Daniel had wandered down to the storeroom where the mirror was being kept. He didn’t really know why and, although his first thought had been to go get the controller, he decided against it. He was surprised to see Sergeant Hardy on duty at the door. 

“Evening Richard.” 

“Hello Doctor Jackson, what can I do for you?” replied the young SF. 

“Just came to see that the mirror was secure and it’s Daniel, please.” 

“Yes sir, I mean Daniel. You know you can’t go in there, don’t you? General Hammond’s orders and Colonel O’Neill’s too.” Daniel sighed. He knew how dangerous the mirror could be but he really wanted a chance to study it. 

“Hello!” 

Daniel looked around then at the SF. 

“Did you hear something?” he said. 

“Hello, is anyone there?” 

“There it is again,” Daniel exclaimed. 

“Actually, sir, it sounded like you!” Sergeant Hardy didn’t know Daniel well but was certainly aware of his status and importance in the SGC. There was a banging, like someone was hammering on a door along with a voice sounding suspiciously like Daniel, repeating his question and now sounding a little frantic. 

“It’s coming from the storeroom, can you open it?” Hardy was already on the phone and Daniel was now having a conversation with whoever was in there, shouting through the door. Suddenly, the alarm sounded and six SF’s came running, followed closely by General Hammond. 

“Stand back, Doctor Jackson,” Hammond boomed and he slid his access card to open the door as the SF’s removed the safety catches on their weapons. The door slid open and an alternative Doctor Jackson practically fell though the ensuing gap into Daniel’s arms. 

“Oh, thank goodness. Have you got a controller? The mirror is still active and I think I might have dropped mine if I fell through, something I’m not quite sure about.” His eyes swung round the nine people surrounding him and stared as he looked at who had stopped his fall. It was another Daniel, who was gaping back at his doppelgänger. 

“Stand down people but stay sharp.” Hammond took an assessing look at the new Jackson then, gathering himself, gave two SF’s immediate orders for the controller to be brought to his office and requested that the two Doctor Jacksons accompany him to said room. He ordered two SF’s to stay with Hardy and to lock the room up again and the other two come with him. 

The two Daniels were chattering away by now though neither had an answer to what had happened and Hammond, although looking fondly at them, ordered them to cease. He wanted to know everything that was being said. In fact, he had a good mind to separate them until Jack arrived. They finished the walk to his office in silence then Hammond ordered his Daniel to come into his office for a moment. They both started after him. 

“No, I meant just the Daniel of this universe.” Hammond said, gesturing at the one he thought was ‘his’. 

“That’s me,” they both replied, in unison, then looked at each other, perplexed. Hammond was confused. Never having known Daniel to lie except in extreme circumstances (and then it was usually by omission), this bothered Hammond. He gestured to them both to sit at the briefing room table; he left the two SF’s with them as he headed to his office. Picking up the phone to contact Walter Harriman, his ever present right hand master sergeant, Hammond ordered coffee for the ‘addicts’. He then told Walter to contact the main gate so he would be apprised as soon as Jack O’Neill arrived. He then sat back in his chair and wiped his brow. Why were things never simple in this command? 

***** 

Five minutes later, his phone rang with the news that Jack O’Neill had arrived. Wanting to brief him before he was confronted with two Daniels, Hammond left his office and headed towards the elevator to meet his second in command. The elevator opened and Jack did a double take to see his commanding officer meeting him. 

“What’s he done now, General?” 

“Sorry to call you back in so quickly Colonel and don’t bother to change just yet. I want you to come and meet the Doctor Jackson who has just come through the mirror … and before you say anything, our Daniel did nothing but,” and here Hammond let out a huge sigh, “I don’t know which is which!” 

“Riigghht,” drawled Jack. “And this is because?” 

“When I got to the storeroom and opened the door, and I took six SF’s with me,” as Jack made to comment, “the alternative Doctor Jackson almost fell out of the room, Daniel caught him and they are identical and I lost track of which is which. Jack, they both claim to be our Daniel!” 

OK, where are they now?” 

“In the briefing room and I requested they not to talk about this until we got there.” 

“Fat chance,” Jack mumbled. “Carter and Teal’c around?” 

“Teal’c is in his quarters, Major Carter maybe in her lab.” 

“OK. So, do we have a plan?” 

“I need you to talk to them both together and separately, Jack. We need to sort this out and we also need to find out why Doctor Jackson came through the mirror. Hopefully the controller has been located now as the mirror remained on after Doctor Jackson came through. I ordered the SF’s to bring it to my office.” 

“Right, we need Carter on that,” and Jack picked up the phone, dialled and found Carter in her lab and they arranged to rendezvous quickly in the briefing room. 

***** 

Carter had shut down the mirror, roused Teal’c from his kel’no’reem and they had talked to one Daniel. Jack and Hammond had quizzed the other but their histories were identical up until one came out of the storage room in which the mirror was kept. Everyone was assuming that their Daniel was the one who was outside but it wasn’t a certainty. 

Hammond, SG1 and an extra Daniel then spent the next half hour together in conversation; one Daniel was certain he was “their’s”, the other not so certain and everyone was extremely confused. 

Without the Daniels, four of them sat in Hammond’s office comparing notes. Everything leading up to Daniel walking to the store room seemed to be identical in both universes. It was during a contemplative silence that Jack had a thought. 

“Did anyone find out what they did when they reached the storeroom?” Silence then Carter exclaimed, “I think you’ve done it again, sir!” No-one had thought to ask which Daniel had used the controller which, they admitted afterwards, was their mistake. Having just dealt with an AU Sam and Kawalsky, where no-one had needed to ask who used the controller, it was, hopefully, going to be the deciding factor. 

“I’ll go, sir,” and Jack got up and left the room. He was back in a few minutes. Neither Daniel was admitting to using the controller. In fact, Jack had a distinct feeling that both Daniel’s were pretty scared by now, neither wanting to be sent back through the mirror. 

“So, people, suggestions?” 

Sam was hesitant. 

“Come on, Carter, I know you have a theory.” 

“Indeed!” 

“Well, the only thing I can think of is that our Daniel thought of getting the controller but didn’t and that was the split off point. The AU Daniel did, opened the mirror and came back to the reality he had just split from as it is probably closest to ours in terms of dialling up the Quantum mirror, sirs.” 

Hammond was beginning to feel a headache coming on. 

“It seems that the Doctor Jackson of the AU is at fault but I can perhaps understand why after the disorientation of coming through the mirror and meeting an identical form of himself. What do we do now? Unusually for Doctor Jackson, one of them is not exactly lying but is unsure of the situation.” 

“I am perplexed,” interrupted Teal’c, itself uncommon. “Daniel Jackson does not lie. This means that one of them is not Daniel Jackson.” 

“Teal’c, I wish it was a simple as that!” Hammond looked around at his best people. “Ideas?” 

“I need to think about this, sir. The AU Daniel is very new, in our terms but he should be subjected to Entropic Cascade Failure eventually; in fact, as it seems that he is a very new creation of Daniel, it may happen sooner than later.” 

“Explain, Carter.” Jack was having real problems getting his head around this. 

“I can’t really, sir, it’s just that the AU Daniel is so close to ours that the ECF might happen quicker but it’s just conjecture … “ she trailed off. 

“Well, one of them is not facing up to the truth!” stated Jack as he leaned forward and thumped the table with his fist, “because neither admits to using the controller. We all know that Daniel wouldn’t lie unless he had a good reason. They seem scared. Daniel had a hell of a childhood and has only recently found stability; this could well be something to do with it.” Showing that he really was far more intelligent and empathetic than most people gave him credit for, Jack sat back in his chair 

“People, you are not giving me a solution here!” 

“General, might I suggest that we isolate the Daniel Jacksons until the Entropic Cascade Failure ensues. They have no need to discuss strategies if their universes have only recently split from one another. Once the Entropic Cascade Failure sets in, we will know who is not our Daniel Jackson.” 

“Thank you, Teal’c! Colonel, escort one Daniel Jackson to VIP 1, Teal’c, you escort the other to VIP 2. Don’t let them communicate with each other anymore or with anyone else. They have spent long enough discussing this and I want them separated to think on their own. Major Carter, see if you can find anything else that will help us solve this problem. Dismissed. Oh, and Colonel, no stopping to talk with a Daniel and please don’t leave, in fact, maybe you’ll go get into uniform once you have delivered your Daniel safely?” 

“Yes, sir!” 

“I will assign two SF’s to VIP 1 and 2 to ensure no one goes in or leaves. Doctors Jackson will probably demand some work but don’t let them have a laptop or anything electronic. In fact, a novel is about all I will allow or some journals.” 

“Coffee, sir?” 

“Probably best to organise that Colonel. We don’t want two crabby Doctor Jacksons!” 

***** 

It was an agonising 24 hours later when the ECF began: if it hadn’t been for the fact that it overtook the Daniel in VIP 2 by surprise (as he wasn’t privy to Sam’s theory that it might happen sooner than 48 hours) and he screamed, they might not have known that early on. The SF on duty had immediately called Hammond who’d found the rest of SG1 and they were now in the corridor contemplating their next move. Wanting to see the evidence face to face, Hammond ordered Jack and Teal’c to sit in VIP 2 with that Daniel and, once they had witnessed an ECF incident, to bring him to the briefing room. 

“Neither of you is to comment on Doctor Jackson’s ordeal or his deception,” Hammond ordered. 

“We will not,” stated Teal’c and he looked pointedly at Jack. 

Luckily, they did not have to wait too long. Sam went to join their Daniel in VIP 1, again theorising that the closer the two were, the more likely that the ECF would happen with greater regularity. Their Daniel was very upset; it took 20 minutes before a further ECF episode occurred and even then he didn’t really calm down: she knew that they were going to be a few trust issues resulting from this incident. 

***** 

The briefing was loud. People were getting angry. Daniel couldn’t understand why a) they hadn’t know him and b) why his doppelgänger had lied. When AU Daniel started to have ECF incidents only a few minutes apart, a decision had to be made and quickly. 

“I suppose if we send him back, he will just to go back to the Universe of the split off point a few hours earlier.” Sam stated as they discussed returning AU Daniel. He was upset and contrite now but really worried about getting back to the correct universe. 

“Why didn’t you bring the controller with you?” Jack mused and, at last, the full story came out. AU Daniel had taken the controller with him, gone into the storeroom by sweet talking Sergeant Hardy and immediately the mirror came on. He dropped the controller on the floor and stumbled to the mirror, needing to touch something to regain his balance and he came through. He still denied actually using it; he didn’t realise it was on. 

“It would have been so much easier if you had told us this 24 hours ago,” stated General Hammond. AU Daniel was remorseful and apologetic. He put it down to fear as he really didn’t really understand what had happened to him as he had no intention of using the mirror. He had no idea that the controller had been able to activate the mirror immediately and his stumble had left him with frightening consequences. He wasn’t quite sure what had really happened. Then, as often happens with lies, he just got deeper and deeper into the subterfuge and wasn’t really sure he wanted to go back, on his story or to his universe. 

“Ahht!” and Jack held up a finger in emphasis, “but you must have realised that this was a split when you met another one of … you … and my head hurts,” he added as an aside. “And, by the way, why didn’t you tell us that you didn’t use the controller?” said to his own Daniel. 

“I didn’t have it with me so I didn’t even think of telling you I didn’t use it!” protested Daniel. AU Daniel hung his head which immediately went into ECF. 

“We need to get AU Daniel out of here,” and Carter stood. “With your permission, sirs?” They all stood and SG1 plus AU Daniel headed for the storeroom. Returning Daniel to his own universe was completed relatively quickly as, luckily, the controller could be seen on the floor and he slipped back to his own universe, waved and shut down the mirror. 

SG1 heaved a collective sigh of relief and Carter, with Teal’c went to return the controller to its locked cupboard. Jack secured the room and warned the SF on duty not to let anyone in at all except General Hammond or himself. He and Daniel then headed up to Hammond’s office to report back as to the success of the mission. 

Jack knew he was in for a barrage of questions and statements from his archaeologist but, head down, hurried to the elevator. When Daniel started to speak he asked that they report to Hammond first, then talk. It seemed a team evening was needed. 

***** 

As Jack suffered the berating by his friend, Carter and Teal’c stood outside Daniel’s office, plucking up the courage to go in and share their friend’s rage. As the shouting subsided, Teal’c made the decision as he had a need to apologise and they went in. A trip to a very nice restaurant in Colorado Springs was definitely on the menu and Daniel wasn’t paying!


End file.
